Richard Bandler

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Richard Bandler
Born
Richard Wayne Bandler

1950 (age 7374)
Teaneck, New Jersey, United States
Occupation(s)Writer, consultant, public speaker
Known forco-creator of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)
Website richardbandler.com

Richard Wayne Bandler (born 1950) is an American writer, consultant, and public speaker in the field of self-help. [1] With John Grinder, he founded the neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) approach to psychotherapy in the 1970s, which is considered pseudoscience. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Early life and education

Richard Wayne Bandler was born in Teaneck, New Jersey and attended high school in Sunnyvale, California. [5] :24 He has stated that he was beaten as a child so badly that every bone in his body was broken. After his parents separated, he moved with his mother and stayed mostly in and around San Francisco. [6] [ verification needed ] Bandler obtained a BA degree in philosophy and psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 1973, and an MA degree in psychology from Lone Mountain College in San Francisco in 1975. [5] :24–25

Neuro-linguistic programming

Bandler helped publisher Robert S. Spitzer (of Science and Behavior Books, Inc.) edit The Gestalt Approach (1973) based on a manuscript by gestalt therapist Fritz Perls (who had died in 1970). He also assisted with checking transcripts for Eye Witness to Therapy (1973). [7] According to Spitzer, "[Bandler] came out of it talking and acting like Fritz Perls." [8]

While a student at UCSC, Bandler also led a Gestalt therapy group. John Grinder, a professor at the University, said to Bandler that he could explain almost all the questions and comments Bandler made using transformational grammar. Grinder's specialty was in linguistics. Together, they created what they called a therapist training group. This was the basis for their first book, The Structure of Magic (1975).[ citation needed ] Bandler and Grinder claim to have later codified some of the foundational models for neuro-linguistic programming in part by studying the methods of Milton Erickson and Virginia Satir. [9] [ non-primary source needed ]

Murder trial and acquittal

In 1986, Corine Ann Christensen (December 8, 1954 – November 3, 1986), a former girlfriend of Bandler's friend and cocaine dealer, James Marino, was shot dead in her Santa Cruz townhouse with a .357 magnum owned by Bandler. Authorities charged Bandler with her murder. Bandler testified that he had been at Christensen's house, but that Marino had shot Christensen. After a short deliberation, a jury found Bandler not guilty. [5] :24,64 [10]

Publications

Related Research Articles

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development and psychotherapy, that first appeared in Richard Bandler and John Grinder's 1975 book The Structure of Magic I. NLP asserts that there is a connection between neurological processes, language and acquired behavioral patterns, and that these can be changed to achieve specific goals in life. According to Bandler and Grinder, NLP can treat problems such as phobias, depression, tic disorders, psychosomatic illnesses, near-sightedness, allergy, the common cold, and learning disorders, often in a single session. They also say that NLP can model the skills of exceptional people, allowing anyone to acquire them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Satir</span> American psychotherapist & non-fiction author

Virginia Satir was an American author, clinical social worker and psychotherapist, recognized for her approach to family therapy. Her pioneering work in the field of family reconstruction therapy honored her with the title "Mother of Family Therapy". Her best known books are Conjoint Family Therapy, 1964, Peoplemaking, 1972, and The New Peoplemaking, 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Grinder</span> American linguist (born 1940)

John Thomas Grinder Jr. is an American linguist, writer, management consultant, trainer and speaker. Grinder is credited with co-creating the pseudoscience known as neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) with Richard Bandler. He is co-director of Quantum Leap Inc., a management consulting firm founded by his partner Carmen Bostic St. Clair in 1987. Grinder and Bostic St. Clair also run workshops and seminars on NLP internationally.

Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility and focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist–client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of their overall situation. It was developed by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s and 1950s, and was first described in the 1951 book Gestalt Therapy.

Barry Stevens (1902–1985) was an American writer and Gestalt therapist. She developed her own form of Gestalt therapy body work, based on the awareness of body processes. For the Human Potential Movement of the 1970s, she became a kind of "star", but she always refused to accept that role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emotional Freedom Techniques</span> Form of pseudoscientific counseling intervention

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a technique that stimulates acupressure points by pressuring, tapping or rubbing while focusing on situations that represent personal fear or trauma. EFT draws on various theories of alternative medicine – including acupuncture, neuro-linguistic programming, energy medicine, and Thought Field Therapy (TFT). EFT also combines elements of exposure therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and somatic stimulation. It is best known through Gary Craig's EFT Handbook, published in the late 1990s, and related books and workshops by a variety of teachers. EFT and similar techniques are often discussed under the umbrella term "energy psychology."

Transderivational search is a psychological and cybernetics term, meaning when a search is being conducted for a fuzzy match across a broad field. In computing the equivalent function can be performed using content-addressable memory.

Brief psychotherapy is an umbrella term for a variety of approaches to short-term, solution-oriented psychotherapy.

Representational systems is a postulated model from neuro-linguistic programming, a collection of models and methods regarding how the human mind processes and stores information. The central idea of this model is that experience is represented in the mind in sensorial terms, i.e. in terms of the putative five senses, qualia.

Steve Andreas was an American psychotherapist and author specializing in Neuro-linguistic programming.

Covert hypnosis is an attempt to communicate with another person's unconscious mind without informing the subject that they will be hypnotized. It is also known as conversational hypnosis or sleight of mouth.. It is a term largely used by proponents of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), a pseudoscientific approach to communication and interaction.

Maria Gomori was a Hungarian-born Canadian pioneer in the field of systems family therapy. She contributed to the fields of psychiatric and social work training, and designed numerous training programs. She was a proponent of the Satir Method for Family Therapy. In 2004, she was named "Woman of Distinction" for the field of Health and Wellness by the City of Winnipeg. In the same year Winnipeg's Saint Boniface Hospital Research Centre established a lectureship in her name to honour her long and varied contributions to the health system and the people who use it.

The methods of neuro-linguistic programming are the specific techniques used to perform and teach neuro-linguistic programming, which teaches that people are only able to directly perceive a small part of the world using their conscious awareness, and that this view of the world is filtered by experience, beliefs, values, assumptions, and biological sensory systems. NLP argues that people act and feel based on their perception of the world and how they feel about that world they subjectively experience.

Connirae Andreas is an American author and psychotherapist who is known for her work within the field of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).

The Structure of Magic is a two-volume book series by John Grinder and Richard Bandler, co-founders of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), which is considered a pseudoscience. The series explores how humans construct internal models of the world through language and nonverbal communication. They introduce a process of modeling, through which the authors sought to identify the replicable patterns of thought, language, and behavior modeled from "outstanding psychotherapists", namely Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir, a family systems therapist. The foreword to the first volume was written by Virginia Satir and the introduction by Gregory Bateson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gestalt practice</span> Psychological practice

Gestalt practice is a contemporary form of personal exploration and integration developed by Dick Price at the Esalen Institute. The objective of the practice is to become more fully aware of the process of living within a unified field of body, mind, relationship, earth and spirit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomasz Witkowski</span> Polish psychologist (born 1963)

Tomasz Witkowski is a Polish psychologist, skeptic and science writer. He is known for his unconventional campaigns against pseudoscience. He specializes in debunking pseudoscience, particularly in the fields of psychology, psychotherapy, and diagnostics. Witkowski also engages in debates on pseudoscience-related topics, emphasizing scientific skepticism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marilyn Atkinson</span> Canadian public speaker

Marilyn W. Atkinson is the founder and President of Erickson Coaching International. She is a speaker, coach, Master coach trainer, Master NLP trainer, writer, designer of coach training program The Art & Science of Coaching Atkinson was a student of Milton Erickson, and it was his mentorship and guidance that inspired her to name the company after him.

Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming (1979) is a book by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, co-founders of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), which is considered a pseudoscience. The book is one of several produced from transcripts of their seminars from the late 1970s, and has sold more than 270,000 copies. The book offers examples of Bandler and Grinder employing various NLP techniques, representational systems, rapport-building, anchoring, and reframing.

References

  1. Colman, Andrew M. (2015). A Dictionary of Psychology. Oxford University Press. p. 503. ISBN   978-0-19-105784-7.
  2. Thyer, Bruce A.; Pignotti, Monica G. (2015). Science and Pseudoscience in Social Work Practice. Springer Publishing Company. pp. 56–57, 165–167. ISBN   978-0-8261-7769-8. As NLP became more popular, some research was conducted and reviews of such research have concluded that there is no scientific basis for its theories about representational systems and eye movements.
  3. Sharpley, Christopher F. (January 1, 1987). "Research findings on neurolinguistic programming: Nonsupportive data or an untestable theory?". Journal of Counseling Psychology. 34 (1): 103–107. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.34.1.103.
  4. Witkowski, Tomasz (January 1, 2010). "Thirty-Five Years of Research on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. NLP Research Data Base. State of the Art or Pseudoscientific Decoration?". Polish Psychological Bulletin. 41 (2). doi: 10.2478/v10059-010-0008-0 . All of this leaves me with an overwhelming impression that the analyzed base of scientific articles is treated just as theater decoration, being the background for the pseudoscientific farce which NLP appears to be. Using "scientific" attributes, which is so characteristic of pseudoscience, is manifested also in other aspects of NLP activities... My analysis leads undeniably to the statement that NLP represents pseudoscientific rubbish
  5. 1 2 3 Clancy, Frank; Yorkshire, Heidi (February–March 1989). "The Bandler Method". Mother Jones. ISSN   0362-8841.
  6. "Richard Bandler. Where were you born?" on YouTube
  7. Perls, Frederick S. (1973). The Gestalt Approach & Eye Witness to Therapy. Science & Behavior Books. ISBN   0-8314-0034-X.
  8. Spitzer, Robert (July 1992). "Virginia Satir and the Origins of NLP" (PDF). Anchor Point. Vol. 6, no. 7. ISSN   0895-366X. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2009.
  9. Grinder, John; Bostic St. Clair, Carmen (2001). Whispering in the Wind. C&J Enterprises.
  10. "Psychotherapist Not Guilty in Prostitute's Murder, Jury Finds" . Los Angeles Times. Times Wire Services. January 29, 1988. p. 3. ISSN   0458-3035.

Further reading